Atherosclerosis and its clinical consequences, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and peripheral vascular disease, represent a truly enormous burden to the health care systems of the industrialized world. In the United States alone, approximately 13 million patients have been diagnosed with CHD, and greater than one half million deaths are attributed to CHD each year. Further, this toll is expected to grow over the next quarter century as the average age of the population increases and as an epidemic in obesity and diabetes continues to grow.
Inhibition of CETP is a promising new approach to reducing the incidence of atherosclerosis. Statins have been important in reducing the incidence of CHD by reducing LDL-cholesterol (the “bad cholesterol”), but are relatively ineffective at raising HDL-cholesterol (“the good cholesterol”). CETP inhibitors raise HDL-cholesterol, and may provide a potent new tool for reducing CHD and atherosclerosis in the general population. Administration of both a CETP inhibitor and a statin may be especially valuable for treating and preventing atherosclerosis. Pharmaceuticals containing CETP inhibitors are not currently available. Pfizer's torcetrapib is a CETP inhibitor that is currently in Phase III trials.